Category: politics

Why We Have to Talk About QAnon

Mike Rothschild7 Comments

I’ve been writing about online conspiracy theory QAnon for a while, and figured it was just too weird, esoteric, and creepy to make mainstream news.

I mean, fascist fantasies about a massive purge of Democratic baby-eaters, with a cadre of self-proclaimed “autists” deciphering rhetorical clues to the events to come left by a secret insider?

So imagine my surprise when a large and vocal group of Q believers swamped a Trump rally in Tampa on July 31st.

Suddenly, QAnon was everywhere – from the New York Times to the BBC and back.

It introduced Q to millions of people and brought mainstream recognition to a movement that had primarily been a secret club with very specific codes and keys to get in.

The coverage also brought up a very real backlash asking an important question: why are we talking about this crap?

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Yes, I Defended James Gunn – You Should Too

Mike Rothschild

On Friday morning, right wing fringe types and #QAnon believers on Twitter and Reddit started passing around old tweets from “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn. They had been dug up by professional conservative outrage pushers, and served as “proof” that Gunn was some kind of horrific child rapist, flaunting his proclivities to the world.

These tweets, some going as far back as 2009, were indeed jokes about pedophilia and sexual contact with children. They’re gross, puerile, offensive, and most of all, not funny.

Gunn had already apologized for making these comments, essentially calling them jokes that tried (and failed) to push the envelope of what’s acceptable in shock humor.

But to the online mob, not only were they brand new, they were”proof” that Gunn was an out and proud pedophile, rapist, sexual deviant, occultist, and child torturer.

Never mind that there was no actual evidence any of this was true. It was true to them.

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The Day the Lights Went Out on Donald

Mike Rothschild1 Comment

 

On Tuesday, President Trump made a statement clarifying the remarks he gave in Helsinki, which, par for the course, only made the situation murkier and worse.

During a key moment in the remarks, something happened that, depending on your belief system, was either a sign that Trump is in total control of the situation, or just a random thing that happened.

At the moment Trump claimed (without evidence) that he has “full faith” in US intelligence agencies, the lights in the White House flickered and went out for about two seconds.

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First Scalia, Now Anthony Kennedy

Mike Rothschild

Last week, I wrote about the political implications of SCOTUS Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, and essentially, how liberal apathy put us in the position of Donald Trump being able to jam Supreme Court Justices through a collaborationist Senate.

At the time, it seemed clear that was due to a combination of his age (he’s 81) and Trump convincing Kennedy he’d be able to get a nomination confirmed before the November midterm and the possible loss of the Senate to Democrats.

But what a difference a few days makes.

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Donald Trump Owns SCOTUS – And We Gave it To Him

Mike Rothschild3 Comments

I know it’s hard to think about a time before Donald Trump was president, but I’d like you to cast your mind’s eye back on 2014.

At that point, Donald Trump was a tv-show hosting buffoon who occasionally sent stupid tweets about Barack Obama being born in Kenya and killing everyone who knew.

In November of that year there was an election. I get it if you don’t remember, because only about 36% of eligible voters actually bothered voting. So you might not remember.

Democrats entered the election with 53 seats in the Senate. They left it with 44, losing 9 seats as part of the worst Congressional bloodbath in a century (Democrats also lost 13 House seats to go along with the 63 they lost in 2010.)

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